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Jgautical  Sns^trumentsJ 


BY 


JOHN    ROBINSON 


BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 
1921 


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ONE  HUNDRED  COPIES 
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Salt  Glaze  Stone 
Historic 


One   of   the   rar 
cylindrical    drinki  ^ 
infrequent    specln  e 
18th    centurj'    dev|| 
which   has   some 
in  this  country, 
of  this  salt  g-laze  no^ 


X^are  in 
Anlherst  Tavern 


■pes  of  the  small 
lUg-s  is  the  vei-y 
1  salt  glaze,  that 
ent  of  stoneware 
devoted  followers 
.'gi'eater  proportion 
found  in  shops  and 


JCSB  LIBRARY 


collections  came  from  the  Staffordshire 
towns.  It  is  distinguishable  by  its  light 
ness,  the  brittle  crispness  of  ithe  moulded 
ornament,  the  thin  body,  and  sparseness 
of  decoration.  The  salt  .giaze  mug  here- 
with illustrated,  is  oae  of  the  very 
earliest  tvpes  in  which  the  simplified  de- 
sign is  incised  very  sketchily  into  the 
clay,  and  a  blue  rubbed  in,  prior  to 
firin'g  the  piece.  It  was  produced  near 
the  middle  of  the  18th  century,  and  has 
been  pronounced  by  no  less  an  authority 
than  Albert  J.  Hill  of  Boston  to  be  one 
of  the  finest  of  its  type.  The  photo- 
graph above  was  furnished  by  Miss  Carol 
Scheid,  charming  secretary  to  Mrs.  Kim- 
ball, whose  immense  collection  of  early 
mugs  graces  the  Dickinson-Baggs  Tavern 
in  Amherst. 


f 


«^ 


^ 


SHIP  GRAND  TURK.  1786 


OLD-TIME  NAUTICAL  INSTRUMENTS 

By  John  Robinson 

Curator  of  the  Marine  Room,  Peabody  Museum,  Salem,  Mass. 


WHAT  sort  of  instruments  did 
the  Colonial  ship-masters  car- 
ry? What  did  they  have  on 
the  Mayflower?  What  did  Columbus 
use?  And,  to  come  down  to  com- 
paratively recent  times,  what  instru- 
ments were  available  and  were  actu- 
ally used  on  the  vessels  during  the 
commercial-marine  activities  following 
the  American  Revolution  and  up  to  the 
time  of  the  appearance  of  steamships? 
These  questions  are  often  asked, 
not  only  by  landsmen  but  by  seafaring 
men  as  well.  The  ship-master  of  to- 
day uses  instruments  so  different  from 
those  of  Colonial  times,  or  even  of  the 
earlier  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, that  unless  he  has  a  penchant 
for  research  he  knows  nothing  about 
the  earlier  ones  and  certainly  not  how 
to  use  them  if  by  chance  they  come 
to  his  notice.  Holding  in  his  hand  a 
Davis  quadrant,  the  skilful  navigator 
of  Salem's  last  square-rigger,  the  ship 
Mindoro,  which  passed  out  of  service 
in  1897,  said  to  the  writer: —  "I  have 
no  idea  how  to  use  it  and   I   do  not 


believe  that  there  is  a  ship-master  sail- 
ing out  of  Boston  today  who  does." 
The  Davis  quadrant  was  in  common 
use  all  through  the  eighteenth  century 
and  probably  later.  It  is  figured  and 
explained  in  a  book  on  navigation  in 
1796.  There  are  two  in  the  Peabody 
Museum  collection  in  Salem,  dated 
respectively,  1768  and  1773,  and  an 
undated  one  in  the  collection  is  cer- 
tainly older.  Only  the  student  of  the 
history  of  navigation  can  explain  them 
or  their  uses.  The  English  navigator, 
John  Davis,  the  inventor  of  this  quad- 
rant, in  his  "Seaman's  Secrets",  print- 
ed in  1594,  gives  a  list  of  instruments 
which  should  be  taken  on  ships,  but  it 
is  to  be  feared  few  vessels  carried  them 
all  or  that  owners  were  able  to  provide 
them.  It  included,  —  sea-compass, 
cross-staff,  chart,  quadrant,  astrolabe, 
instrument  to  test  compass  variation, 
horizontal  plane  sphere,  and  paradox- 
ical compass. 

No  one  knows  exactly  what  instru- 
ments Columbus  took  with  him  on  his 
voyage  in  1492.    He  undoubtedly  had 


SIXTEENTH  CENTURY  SPANISH  ASTROLABE 
Full  size.     From  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston. 


UNIVERSAL  RING-DIAL 
Diameter  3  1-2  inches.     Owned  by  Mr.  Parker  Kemble. 


an  astrolabe  and  a  cross-staff.  The 
astrolabe  was  devised  during  the  first 
millennium  and  Arabian  astronomers 
had  perfected  it  as  early  as  the  year 
700.  It  is  really  the  basis  of  all  fu- 
ture instruments  of  its  class, — cross- 
staff,  quadrant,  sextant.  Some  of  the 
most  beautiful  astrolabes  preserved  in 
museums  are  those  made  for  the  Per- 
sian astronomers  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries.  Columbus  prob- 
ably used  the  form  devised  by  Martin 
Behaim  which  had  been  adapted  for 
use  at  sea  about  the  year  1480.  Ob- 
servations with  the  astrolabe  required 
three  persons,  one  to  hold  the  instru- 
ment plumb  by  the  ring,  another  to 
sight  the  sun  and  adjust  the  arm,  and 
the  third  to  read  the  scale.  With  these 
difficulties      observations      were,      of 


course,  far  from  accurate,  but  approx- 
imate time  and  latitude  could  be  ob- 
tained. Another  device  was  the  ring- 
dial,  or  universal  ring-dial  as  the  old 
works  on  navigation  called  it.  This 
differed  from  the  astrolabe  by  having 
adjustable  rings  with  the  hours  and 
scales  engraved  upon  them.  Both  of 
these  instruments  are  now  rare. 

Xo  original  cross-staff  is  known  to 
the  writer  in  any  collection  in  this 
country.  It  consisted  of  a  rod  thirty- 
six  inches  long  on  which  another  of 
twenty-six  inches  was  centered  and  ar- 
ranged to  slide  up  and  down  -at  right 
angles  to  it.  By  sighting  from  the 
end  of  the  longer  rod  and  moving  the 
sliding  bar  until  the  sun  was  seen  at 
one  end  of  it  and  the  horizon  at  the 
other,   the  figure  on  the  scale  at  the 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  MARINER 

USING  A  CROSS-STAFF 

From  Seller's  "Practical  Navigation," 

London,  1676 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  MARINER 

USING  DAVIS'  QUADRANT 

From  Seller's  "Practical  Navigation," 

London,  1676 


junction  of  the  rods  indicated  the  sun's 
altitude  and  from  this  the  latitude  was 
obtained. 

Based  on  this  instrument,  by  laying 
out  the  circle  on  a  table,  John  Davis, 
the  explorer,  devised  his  quadrant  in 
1586.  At  first  the  observer  used  it 
by  facing  the  sun,  as  the  cross-staff 
had  been  used,  but  a  better  form  was 
made  later  where  the  observer  had  the 
sun  at  his  back.  This  instrument  has 
been  called  by  sailors  "jackass  quad- 
rant" and,  supposedly  from  its  shape, 
"hog-yoke."  In  early  books  on  navi- 
gation it  is  called  "sea-quadrant."  The 
earlier  form  used  by  the  observer 
standing  back  to  the  sun  had  a  solid 
"shade  vane"  which  slid  along  the 
smaller  arc  of  the  instrument.  By 
adjusting  this  a  little  short  of  the  sup- 
posed altitude  of  the  sun  and  sighting 
the  horizon  through  the  minute  hole 
in  the  "sight  vane"  until  it  was  seen 


through  the  "horizon  vane"  at  the  apex 
of  the  instrument,  and  then  gradually 
moving  the  "sight  vane"  along  the 
larger  arc  until  the  shadow  of  the 
"shade  vane"  met  the  horizon  line, 
the  sum  of  the  degrees  on  the  two 
scales  indicated  the  sun's  altitude.  This 
was  really  the  second  form  of  the 
Davis  quadrant.  In  the  third,  the  solid 
"shade  vane"  was  replaced  by  one  with 
a  low-power  lens  inserted  in  it  ar- 
ranged to  focus  on  the  "horizon  vane," 
thus  approaching  the  idea  of  the  re- 
flected sun  in  the  Hadley  quadrant  and 
the  sextant.  A  most  interesting  instru- 
ment, half-way  between  a  cross-staff 
and  the  Davis  quadrant,  is  illustrated 
in  Seller's  book  on  navigation  pub- 
lished in  1676.  He  calls  it  a  "Plough." 
Above,  it  has  the  small  arc  of  the 
Davis  quadrant  with  the  sliding  rod  of 
the  cross-staff^  below.  These  were,  of 
course,  imperfect  instruments,  but  still 


Sect, 


ne  Defcription  of  the  Flough^ 


The  Ffgme  of  the  TIqh^, 


asE 


The  Staff  is  about  two  foot  and  a  half  long,  or  three  foot  at  the  moff  \ 
at  the  Center-end  of  which  is  erei^ed  a  fmall  Arch,  that  is  divided  into 
85  degrees  \  on  the  fide  of  the  Staff  are  fet  off  the  Graduations  proper  to 
the  Plough,  beginning  at  five  or  fix  degrees »  and  encreafing  to  ten 
degrees  towards  the  Arch,  every  degree  being  diyided  into  fingle 
mmutes*  .  {'     i 

The  Vanes  are  a  Horizon-Vane,  as  A,  zni  Shadop^  Vam-i  as  B,  (to  be 
ufed  as  in  the  Quadrant;  and  a  Sight-Vaw  moving  upon  the  Staff^as  atC, 


PAGE  FROM  "PRACTICAL  NAVIGATION,"  BY  JOHN  SELLERS.  LONDON,  1676 


DAVIS  QUADRANT 
"  Made  by  William  Williams  in  Kingf  St.  Boston." 
An  ivory  plate  has  "Malachi  Allen  1769."  Mahog- 
any, 24  inches  long,  convex  glass  in  the  shade  vane; 
fine  example  of  cabinet  work.  In  Peabody  Mu- 
seum, Salem. 


a  great  advance  over  previous  devices 
to  obtain  time  and  latitude. 

The  Davis  quadrants  are  usually 
made  of  ebony,  rosewood,  or  other 
dark  woods,  with  boxwood  scale  arcs 
and  could  be  made  by  expert  wood- 
workers. The  numerous  examples  pre- 
served attest  the  skill  of  the  old  cab- 
inet-makers, for  they  are  never  warped 
or  twisted  while  their  jointing  is  a 
Chinese  puzzle.  Probably  the  May- 
flozver  carried*  a  Davis  quadrant  and 
quite  likely  an  astrolabe,  and  of  course, 
a  compass,  for  the  compass  had  been 
in  use  for  two  centuries. 


Whether  the  compass  was  independ- 
ently invented  in  Europe  or  was  bor- 
rowed from  the  Chinese  is  uncertain. 
The  old  marine  compasses  were  set  in 
gimbals.  The  magnet  was  a  thin  bar 
attached,  usually  with  sealing  wax,  to 
the  under  side  of  the  compass  card,  the 
whole  mounted  in  a  thin  bowl  of 
turned  wood.  These  were  the  com- 
passes of  the  eighteenth  century.  There 
is  one  in  the  Salem  collection  inscribed, 
— "Benjamin  King  Salem  in  New 
England",  with  the  date  "1770"  cut 
in  the  box;  another  has  the  mark  of 
Benjamin  King,  1790.  A  surveyor's 
compass,  wooden  throughout,  including 
wooden  sights,  is  inscribed, — "Made 
by  James  Halsey  near  ye  draw  bridge 
Boston."  The  liquid  compass  first 
suggested  by  Francis  Crow  in  1813 
and  improved  by  E.  S.  Ritchie  of  Bos- 
ton, has  largely  displaced  the  older 
devices. 

The  "nocturnal",  used  at  night,  as 
its  name  signifies,  appeared  at  an  early 
date,  exactly  when  it  does  not  seem 
possible  to  say.  One  in  the  Salem  col- 
lection is  marked, — "Nathaniel  Viall 
1724".  By  adjusting  the  movable  discs 
to  the  date  on  the  scale  for  the  day  of 
the  month,  sighting  the  north  star 
through  the  hole  in  the  center  and  then 
bringing  the  arm  against  the  "guard 
stars",  the  hour  was  indicated  with 
reasonable  accuracy.  Good  pictures 
and  descriptions  of  the  nocturnal  may 
be  found  in  old  books  on  navigation. 

In  1730,  John  Hadley  in  England 
and  Thomas  Godfrey  in  Philadelphia, 
independently  invented  the  octant, 
known  for  nearly  two  hundred  years 
as  Hadley's  quadrant.  Both  Hadley 
and  Godfrey  received  awards  for  their 
devices.  Although  called  quadrant  in 
this  country  it  is  generally  known 
elsewhere  as  octant,  which  is  the  bet- 
ter name,  for  the  instrument  repre- 
sents but  one  eighth  of  the  circle.  By 
the  principle  of  reflection,  however,  it 
covers    ninety   degrees    and    the   scale 


is  so  marked.  The  Davis  quadrant 
with  its  two  arcs  does  represent  one 
fourth  of  the  circle  and  for  that  in- 
strument the  name  is  correct. 

The  Hadley  was  a  great  improve- 
ment over  the  Davis  quadrant  and 
other  older  devices  for  finding  lati- 
tude. By  moving  the  arm  the  sun  is 
reflected  by  the  mirror  at  the  apex 
and  "brought  down"  to  the  horizon 
line  and  the  eye  is  protected  by  col- 
ored glasses  of  various  degrees  of  den- 
sity through  which  the  sun's  rays 
shine.  Catching  the  sun  the  instant 
it  is  on  the  meridian  (noon),  the  scale 
indicates  the  altitude  by  which  the 
latitude  was  figured  with  the  Bow- 
ditch  Navigator,  used  for  more  than 
one  hundred  years  by  American  sea- 
men, or  Moore's  before  that  and 
numerous  others  back  to  the  early 
eighteenth  century.  The  Hadley  quad- 
rant is  still  used  in  its  modern  form 
with  telescopic  eye-pieces  although  the 
sextant — one-sixth  of  the  circle  and 
by  reflection  one-third — is  a  more  ac- 
curate instrument  and  also  may  be 
used  to  make  lunar  observations  to  ob- 
tain longitude,  a  complicated  and  dif- 
ficult matter,  so  difficult  that  the  au- 
thors of  the  older  works  did  not  even 
take  trouble  to  explain  the  process,  for 
only  the  most  expert  could  make  this 
observation,  nor  were  the  results  sat- 
isfactory. 

The  sextant  was  devised  about  1757 
and  as  now  made  is  framed  wholly  of 
metal.  To  prevent  corrosion,  the  scale, 
which  is  minutely  divided,  and  has  a 
"vernier"  .  with  a  magnifying  glass 
to  show  divisions  of  minutes,  is  made 
of  gold  or  platinum  in  the  best  instru- 
ments. A  half-circle  has  been  devised 
and  is  exceedingly  rare.  An  example 
in  the  Salem  collection  was  made  be- 
fore 1818.  A  curious  double-jointed 
dividers  accompanied  it  and  the  entry 
in  the  museum  catalog  reads, — "used 
to  correct  a  lunar  observation  for  long- 
itude."    A    full    "circle   of   reflection" 


NOCTURNAL 

"Nath'll  Viall  1 724."     Boxwood,  arm  seven  inches 
from  centre  to  tip.     In  Peabody  Museum,  Salem. 

is  also  sometimes  used,  more  often  on 
land  than  at  sea.  This  is  a  beautiful 
instrument  and  is  not  often  met  with 
in  collections  or  in  use.  All  of  these 
instruments  are  similar  in  character 
and  may  be  traced,  as  previously 
stated,  to  the  ancestral  astrolabe. 

The  early  Hadley  quadrants  were 
huge  afi"airs  made  of  wood  with  an 
arm  twenty-four  inches  in  length.  To- 
day they  are  more  generally  of  metal 
with  arms  from  ten  to  twelve  inches. 
Using  the  sextent  or  Hadley  quad- 
rant the  observer  stands  facing  the 
sun,  but  old  Hadley  quadrants  were 
made  with  a  "back  sight"  so  that  they 
could  be  used  like  the  Davis  quadrant, 
thus  making  two  independent  observa- 
tions the  average  of  which  would  en- 
sure greater  accuracy. 

To  obtain  the  ship's  latitude  with 
comparatively    good    results    was    an 


HADLEY  QUADRANTS  (OCTANTS)  IN  PEABODY  MUSEUM,  SALEM 


1.  "Made  by  John  Dupee  1755  for  Patrick 
Montgomerie."  All  wood,  ebony,  arm  22  inches 
long. 


2.  "Made  by  Ino.  Gilbert  on  Tower  Hill 
London  for  Hector  Orr  Augt.  6,  1768."  Ebony, 
arm  20  inches  long. 


3.     "Norie  &  Co.  London."        Ebony  and  brass,  ca.  1840.     Arm  11  3-4  inches, 
telescopic  eyepieces,  used  by  Capt.  John  Hodges. 


4.  "Spencer  Browning  and  Rust  London." 
Ebony  frame,  breiss  arm  17  inches,  ivory  scale, 
pencil  inserted  in  cross  piece,  ca.  1800,  used  by 
Capt.  Henry  King. 


5.     "J:  Urings  London."     All   brass,    arm   20 
inches,  back  sight  broken  off,  ca.  1780,  rare. 


easy  matter  with  the  quadrant  and  its 
fore-runners,  but  the  great  problem 
for  centuries  was  how  to  find  the  long- 
itude, now  universally  and  quickly 
obtained  by  the  chronometer  and  sim- 
ple observations  in  the  morning  or  at 
noon.  Spring  clocks  and  watches  ap- 
peared about  1530  but  they  were  un- 
reliable and  of  no  use  on  long  voyages. 
Sand  glasses  like  those  of  the  old  Colo- 
nial churches  were  used  on  ships  and 
so  conservative  is  the  British  mind  that 
some  were  in  use  on  British  naval  ves- 
sels as  late  as  1828  and  one  authority 
states  as  late  as  1839.  Greenwich  Ob- 
servatory was  established  in  1675  and 
a  Royal  Commission  was  soon  ap- 
pointed with  authority  to  award  prizes 
for  important  inventions  in  aid  ot  nav- 
igation. A  prize  of  £20,000  was  finally 
offered  for  a  time-keeper  that  should 
meet  certain  requirements  which  prac- 
tically meant  absolute  accuracy.  In 
1767,  John  Harrison  produced  the 
chronometer,  based  on  the  principle  of 
an  invention  of  1735,  and  eventually 
he  received  the  reward.  Chronometers 
were  so  expensive  and  so  hard  to  ob- 
tain that  few  New  England  ships  had 
them  until  more  than  a  half  a  century 
later.  Other  devices  were  tried  to  ob- 
tain longitude  by  lunar  observations 
and  by  Jupiter's  satellites,  but  these 
observations  were  too  difficult  to  be 
of  practical  use.  Today,  fine  watches 
serve  for  short  trips  and  chronometers 
are  carried  by  nearly  all  vessels  mak- 
ing long  voyages. 

That  so  important  an  Instrument  as 
a  telescope  or  spy-glass  is  rarely  men- 
tioned In  books  on  navigation  or  in 
sea  journals  seems  strange.  It  is  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  to  obtain  informa- 
tion of  any  being  taken  to  sea,  al- 
though one  would  think  a  spy-glass 
would  be  about  the  first  aid  on  ship- 
board especially  when  skirting  the 
coast.  Telescopes  did  not  become  of 
practical  use,  even  if  the  principle  had 
been  known,  until  thev  were  made  in 


Holland  in  1608.  It  is  at  least  certain 
that  Columbus  did  not  have  one  and 
probably  there  was  none  on  the  May- 
jlozuer,  although  its  passengers  had 
recently  .come  from  Holland  where 
telescopes  were  invented  a  few  years 
before.  So  far  no  references  to  them 
have  been  found  in  a  rather  casual  ex- 
amination of  old  log-books. 

In  the  Alarine  Room  Collection  of 
the  Peabody  Museum  at  Salem,  is  a 
spy-glass  four  feet  long,  octagonal  in 
form,  two  and  one-half  Inches  in  di- 
ameter, with  a  short  focusing  tube. 
It  was  taken  from  a  British  prize  ves- 
sel off  the  coast  of  Ireland,  in  1779, 
by  Capt.  James  Barr  in  his  Salem  pri- 
vateer. Another  glass  of  similar  form, 
but  longer  and  with  a  mahogany  case, 
was  used  on  a  United  States  naval  ves- 
sel about  1815.  The  spy-glass,  famil- 
iar to  everyone,  in  two  or  three  sec- 
tions, was  used  at  sea  through  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  is 
often  seen  tucked  under  the  left  arm, 
in  the  portraits  of  ship-masters 
brought  home  from  foreign  ports. 
Many  of  these  were  excellent  instru- 
ments, especially  those  from  Dollond 
of  London.  There  is  also  In  the  Salem 
collection  a  rude  telescope  or  spy- 
glass five  and  one-half  feet  long  with 
a  copper  case  about  three  inches  in 
diameter  looking  precisely  like  a  sec- 
tion from  a  house  water-conductor. 
It  focuses  by  a  small  upper  sliding  sec- 
tion, fitted  like  a  stove  funnel.  This 
glass  was  brought  from  Nagasaki,  Ja- 
pan, by  a  Salem  ship-master  about 
1865.  It  had  been  used  there  to  ob- 
serve vessels  coming  into  the  harbor. 
It  may  be  Dutch  and  it  Is  evidently 
very  old. 

The  speed  of  a  vessel  was  first  ob- 
tained by  throwing  overboard  a  float- 
ing subject  at  the  bow  and  noting  the 
time  elapsed  when  It  passed  an  ob- 
server at  the  stern.  From  this  the  log 
line  with  ''knots"  was  derived,  with 
the  fourteen  and  twentv-eight  seconds 


SEXTANTS  IN  PEABODY  MUSEUM.  SALEM 


1.  ''Bradford  London." 
•cale  arm  14  inches  long,  c 
George  Bailey  before  1840. 


Brass  frame  and  silver 
.   1815,    used  by  Capt. 


2.  "L.  Bleuler,  London."  Ebony  frame,  ivory 
scale,  brass  arm  14  inches  long,  ca.  1820,  came  from 
Plymouth,  Mass. 


3.  "G.  Gowland  76  Castle  St.  Liverpool."  Used  by  David  Livingstone  in  his  Afri- 
can explorations  and  after  his  death  sold  at  Zanzibar  by  order  of  the  Royal  Geograph- 
ical Society  and  bought  by  Capt.  William  Beadle,  of  Salem,  and  used  on  some  of  his 
▼oyages. 


10 


sand  glasses  to  record  speed.  A  "knot" 
indicates  a  geographical  or  sea  mile 
which  has  been  standardized  at  6080 
feet;  the  land  or  statute  mile  is  5280 
feet,  therefore,  if  a  vessel  is  said  to  be 
sailing  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  knots, 
a  railroad  train  going  at  the  same 
speed  would  be  running  at  the  rate  of 
fifteen  miles  an  hour.  The  term  "knot" 
is  used  solely  to  indicate  rate  of  speed; 
the  distance  covered  is  always  stated 
in  nautical  or  sea  miles.  "Heaving  the 
log"  meant  throwing  out  from  the 
stern  of  a  vessel  a  small  float  attached 
to  a  line  running  from  a  reel  held  clear 
of  the  rail,  the  float  remaining  sta- 
tionary in  the  water.  At  the  instant 
the  log  is  "heaved"  a  sand  glass  is 
turned.  On  the  line  are  knots  (hence 
the  term),  pieces  of  marline  or  rags 
tied  through  the  strands  and  spaced 
the  same  fraction  of  a  mile  apart, — 
above  forty-six  feet  and  six  inches, — 
which  twenty-eight  seconds  is  the 
fraction  of  an  hour, — about  one  one- 
hundred  and  twenty-eighth.  Therefore, 
using  a  twenty-eight  seconds  glass  and 
checking  the  line  the  instant  the  sand 
runs  out,  the  number  of  knots  and 
fractions  paid  out  on  the  line  will  at 
once  indicate  the  number  of  sea  miles 
per  hour  which  the  vessel  is  going. 
This,  of  course,  is  doubled  if  the  four- 
teen-seconds  glass  is  used,  which  is 
done  when  the  vessel  is  going  very  fast. 

The  old  log  lines  have  been  super- 
seded by  many  forms  of  the  "patent 
log"  and  the  museum  is  indeed  for- 
tunate which  possesses  an  original  log 
line,  reel  and  float  in  perfect  condition. 
There  is  an  excellent  example  in  the 
museum  collections  of  the  Marblehead 
Historical  Society.  Once  discarded, 
the  lines  were  soon  used  to  tie  up 
packages  and  the  reels  and  floats  were 
thrown  away.  The  patent  log  with  its 
revolving  blades,  now  universal,  was 
devised  by  Humfray  Cole  in  1578; 
it  was  improved  by  various  persons 
from  time  to  time  but,  strange  to  say, 


did  not  come  into  general  use  for  near- 
ly three  centuries.  The  rotating  blades 
in  the  water  record  the  rate  on  an  in- 
dicator on  the  vessel  which  may  be 
read  at  any  time.  So  far,  the  earliest 
reference  to  the  use  of  a  device  of  this 
sort  among  our  New  England  navi- 
gators is  the  "Gould's  patent  log"  used 
by  Captain  George  Crowninshield  on 
his  famous  yacht  Cleopatra's  Barge 
during  the  voyage  to  the  Mediterran- 
ean in  1817. 

Charts  were  made  in  very  ancient 
times  but  they  were  crude  and  almost 
useless.  The  first  nautical  maps  ap- 
peared in  Italy  at  the  end  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  and  it  is  said  that 
Bartholomew  Columbus  brought  the 
first  one  to  England  in  1489.  The 
close  of  the  sixteenth  century  saw 
many  map  makers  at  work,  including 
Gerard  ^Iercator  whose  name  is  per- 
petuated in  the  familiar  scale  charts 
in  our  geographies  known  as  "Merca- 
tor's  projection"  which  were  the  sea 
charts  in  general  use.  Globes  w^ere 
carried  on  ships  in  preference  to  charts 
in  the  early  days  and  what  is  known  as 
"great  circle"  sailing  was  evolved  from 
them.  Davis  describes  it  in  1594  and 
it  is  possible  that  Cabot  knew  of  the 
theory  a  century  before.  Such  a  sim- 
ple instrument  as  a  parallel  ruler  was 
not  invented  until  late  in  the  sixteenth 
century  and  tables  of  logarithms  and 
Gunter's  scale  by  which  navigators 
make  all  their  calculations  were  not 
known  until  the  year  the  Mayflower 
sailed. 

During  the  first  century  following 
the  settlement  of  New  England  it  is 
probable  that  the  small  coasting  and 
fishing  vessels  were  navigated  by  dead 
reckoning  and  not  venturing  far  be- 
yond the  sight  of  land  a  compass  was 
the  only  instrument  carried.  But  the 
larger  vessels  sailing  from  Boston, 
Salem,  Portsmouth,  Newport  and  other 
ports  on  voyages  to  the  West  Indies, 
England    and    Spain,    it   would    seem 


11 


should  have  carried  instruments  with 
which  observations  could  be  made  to 
obtain  their  approximate  position.  Mr. 
George  Francis  Dow  has  searched  the 
early  probate  records  of  Essex  County 
coast  towns  between  1634  and  1680,  a 
period  of  nearly  fifty  years,  and  finds 
but  thirteen  references  to  nautical  in- 
struments in  inventories  and  wills. 
Sometimes  they  are  listed  as  "marri- 
ners  instruments"  and  in  one  case  a 
quadrant  is  valued  at  £1.  Robert  Gray 
of  Salem,  who  died  in  1661,  possessed 
a  "quadrant,  a  fore-staflfe  (cross-staff), 
a  gunter's  scale,  and  a  pair  of  Com- 
passes." John  Bradstreet,  who  died 
at  Marblehead  the  previous  year, 
owned  "3  small  sea  books"  valued  at 
£1.  6s.  The  inventory  of  the  estate  of 
Jonathan  Browne  of  Salem,  who  died 
in  1667,  discloses  a  "fore-staff,"  and 
that  of  the  estate  of  John  Silsby  of 
Salem,  taken  in  1676,  lists  "marriners 
instruments   and  callender,    14s." 

In  a  very  detailed  inventory  made 
in  Salem  before  a  notary  publick  on 
Nov.  4,  1702,  of  the  equipment  of  the 
ship  Province  Galley,  90  tons,  owned 
by  Roger  Derby,  the  only  instruments 
for  navigation  that  appear  are  "Two 
Compasses,  two  ha  [If]  ho[ur]  glasses, 
a  ha  [If]  Watchglass,  a  ha  [If]  minute 
glass  ...  a  hand  lead  line,  a  deep 
sea  lead  line." 

The  Boston  News-Letter,  July  16, 
1716,  has  the  following  advertisement: 
"A  Parcel  of  Mathematical  Instru- 
ments, viz:  Quadrants,  Meridian  Com- 
passes, all  sorts  of  Rules,  black  lead 
Pencils,  and  brass  Ring  Dials,  etc.  To 
be  sold  by  Publick  Vendue  at  the 
Crown  Coffee  House  in  King's  Street, 
Boston,  on  Thursday  next."  The  same 
issue  has  the  advertisement  of  "Wil- 
liam Walker  in  Merchants  Row,  near 
the  Swing  Bridge,"  who  had  quadrants 
for  sale. 

In  looking  back  and  noting  the  slow 
process  of  perfecting  all  nautical  in- 
struments, the  wonder  is  how  the  old 
ships  were  navigated  through  distant 


seas  without  greater  loss  of  life  and 
vessels.  The  dangers  were  real  during 
our  commercial-marine  activities  fol- 
lowing the  period  of  the  Revolution 
and  the  early  nineteenth  century,  as 
attested  by  reference  to  old  news- 
papers and  letters,  and  to  such  records 
as  the  Diary  of  Rev.  William  Bentley 
of  Salem,  where  nearly  every  Sunday 
some  of  his  parishioners  asked  for 
prayers  for  friends  at  sea  or  for  the 
loss  of  husband,  son  or  brother.  The 
shipmasters  of  Salem,  Boston,  Provi- 
dence, New  York  and  Baltimore,  un- 
dertaking distant  voyages,  had  few 
good  charts — none  for  the  new  regions 
they  visited — they  had  no  chronome- 
ters, few  had  sextants,  and  their  com- 
passes were  frequently  unreliable.  And 
yet  these  men — most  of  them  were 
scarcely  past  their  majority  in  years — 
with  the  courage  and  enthusiasm  of 
youth,  in  ships  filled  with  valuable 
cargoes,  entrusted  to  their  care  by 
wealthy  owners,  sailed  into  uncharted 
seas,  visited  unknown  lands,  and,  all 
the  while  rarely  reported,  finally  came 
safely  back,  to  their  everlasting  credit 
and  the  enrichment  of  the  country. 

We  do  not  know  exactly  what  in- 
struments the  old  shipmasters  carried 
with  them  on  these  voyages,  but  we  do 
know  that  they  were  comparatively 
few  and  very  Inferior  to  those  in  use 
today.  An  idea  of  the  paucity  in  some 
instances  may  be  obtained  from  the 
story  of  the  ship  Hannah,  condemned 
at  Christiansand  in  1810,  in  the  pro- 
test of  American  shipmasters  which  is 
now  preserved  in  the  New  Haven  His- 
torical Society  collections.  It  reads: 
"We,  tlie  undersigned  masters  of 
American  vessels  now  in  the  port  of 
Christiansand,  having  heard  with  as- 
tonishment that  one  of  the  principal 
charges  against  the  American  brig 
Hannah,  from  Boston,  bound  direct  to 
Riga,  and  condemned  at  the  prize 
court  at  this  place,  is  as  follows, — that 
the  said  court  have  pronounced  it  ab- 
solutely impossible  to  cross  the  Atlan- 


12 


tic  without  a  chart  or  sextant.  We 
therefore  feel  fully  authorized  to  assert 
that  we  have  frequently  made  voyages 
from  America  without  the  above  ar- 
ticles, and  we  are  fully  persuaded  that 
every  seaman  with  common  nautical 
knowledge  can  do  the  same." 

No  doubt  many  valuable  data  lie 
hidden  in  old  log-books  and  sea  jour- 
nals, early  newspaper  files,  shipping 
records  of  old  business  houses  and 
elsewhere.  To  anyone  with  time  and 
the  inclination  for  research  a  fascinat- 
ing field  is  open  where  material  of 
historical  and  scientific  value  may  be 
found.  The  writer  is  not  aware  that 
any  such  investigations  have  been 
made  or  accounts  of  any  published. 

Accurate  knowledge  of  the  instru- 
ments carried  by  Colonial  shipmasters 
on  their  voyages  to  the  West  Indies  or 
along  our  coast  and  across  the  Atlantic 
would  be  of  much  interest,  and  still 
more  to  know  what  were  supplied  by 


owners  or  carried  as  their  personal 
property  by  masters  and  supercargoes 
for  the  longer  voyages  to  Russia,  the 
Mediterranean,  Africa,  India,  China, 
and  the  South  Seas.  It  would  be  in- 
teresting to  know,  besides  this,  what 
had  been  their  experiences  with  them: 
the  accuracy  of  observations,  how  the 
compass  behaved,  etc.  The  early  nine- 
teenth century  shipmasters  were  close 
observers,  and  in  his  works  on  naviga- 
tion Lieut.  M.  F.  Maury  pays  them 
high  compliment  for  the  valuable  as- 
sistance- rendered  in  furnishing  notes 
and  observations  on  currents,  shoals, 
coast  lines,  compass  variations  and 
winds,  for  the  charts  and  sailing  direc- 
tions which  he  compiled. 

With  these  things  in  mind  this  paper 
has  been  prepared,  hoping  that  some- 
one may  be  encouraged  to  take  up  the 
work  systematically.  It  is  a  subject 
which  seems  to  have  been  neglected, 
and  the  results  certainly  will  repay 
much  time  devoted  to  its  investigation. 


SCHOONER  BALTICK,  CAPT.  EDWARD  ALLEN 
Coining  out  of  St.  Eustatia,  Nov.  16,  176S 


13 


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